Genesis 3: 21 Commentary

Senor Tiuche (Post #13): Toby Mac?

http://www.lovethetruth.com/evils/ccm/tobymac.htm

By Roland G (wrote 1411 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/18/2011 19:54 pm

THE CLOTHING OF GOD…THE BEAUTY of HIS COVERING

Tobey Mac sang about God’s clothing…he sang:

“I’m Your prisoner by choice
I will rest at Your feet
And I’ll only lift my voice
When You want me to sing
It’s the beauty of Your covering that’s stealing my heart
And it’s the mystery of You that tears me apart ”

God WANTS to give this to little gods, to us, so that we would not be found naked …

“Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”Revelation 16:15

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.Revelation 3:18.

Our clothes of flesh neither would our clothing righteousness last, we need His Covering…

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!Luke 21:28…
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Here is an excerpt from:
http://www.edgewoodpc.org/sermons/sermon021008.html

It is also about God’s provision to clothe His wayward creatures!

… The first couple fall from lush garden to “thorns and thistles”(v.18), from freedom from worry to “another day older and deeper in debt.” Although spared the death penalty, this sentence seems to my “bleeding heart” to be excessive. All for one mistake, one small act of defiance.

Elsewhere in the Bible, God is far more lenient. My goodness, those evil Egyptians,
harsh taskmasters of poor Hebrew slaves, get nine chances to change, nine plagues before the angel of death strikes. King David, guilty of sexual abuse in the case of Bathsheba, follows it up conspiracy to commit murder. When confronted by the prophet Nathan, David repents . . .and is forgiven What about Jonah? Runs from God, then gets three days in the belly of the whale to reconsider. He gets a second chance. How come Adam and Eve don’t get a second chance? All they do is eat the forbidden fruit. Who among us had not done that from time to time, maybe even for a midnight snack on a regular basis?

I was mulling these questions when my eyes focused on a verse deeper into chapter 3–
a verse not included in our reading. Immediately after God hands down those harsh sentences, listen to what God does:

1 And the Lord God made garments of skins
for the man and for his wife,
and clothed them.

The God of all creation, the God of power and might, the God of stern judgment, imagine this God now sitting down at the sewing machine, trying to do button holes. Trying to make the zippers work. Trying to get the hems and the cuffs just right.

I don’t know much about sewing–I can barely thread a needle. But we have a group of women here at Edgewood who practice what they have dubbed a “Prayer Shawl Ministry.” By loving hand, they knit shawls for ailing women and afghans for men who have fallen ill. They knit scarves, prayer socks, and baby blankets. These faithful women pray over their work and they pray for the person receiving the gift.

They tell me that knitting, like sewing, is tedious, time-consuming work. Imagine God making clothes for Adam and Eve. See the Great Un-seeable sitting there on a stool, sewing for first son and first daughter. Wanting something better for them– more comfortable, more useful than fig leaves. Like any loving parent, doing for them what they cannot do for themselves.

1 And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.

Old Testament professor Walter Brueggemann says this about the Adam and Eve story.

This is not a simple story of human disobedience and divine displeasure.
It is rather a story about the struggle God has in responding to the facts of human life.
When the facts warrant death, God insist on life for God’s creatures. 1

Let’s break down the brilliant Brueggemann’s insight so we mere mortals can absorb it. This is not simply a story of human disobedience–man and woman screw up– and divine displeasure–the “wrath of God.” It is a story about the struggle God has–who ever said this business of creation was easy for God? It is a story about the struggle God has
in responding to the facts of human life. Plain and simple, the facts are we mortals are hell-bent on disobeying God. Even so, “When the facts warrant death, God insists on life for God’s creatures.”

Remember the Great Flood, when all of humankind had so disappointed God? The facts warrant death, but through Noah and his family God provides rebirth. Remember all of the evil kings of Israel, mistreating the poor–women, orphans, and strangers in the land. The facts warrant destruction of the whole nation. But in the end, God restores Israel. Remember the rejection of God’s own son. The facts surely warrant death for all humanity. Instead, God raises up the Son to new life, and with him, the promise to us of life with God forever and ever. “When the facts warrant death, God insists on life for God’s creatures.”

We are the recipients of this divine gift–life itself. We are clothed in the mercy and grace of God. Every day, as we put on shirts and pants, blouse and skirt, coat and sweater, socks and shoes, imagine the very threads we wear as coming from the loving hand of God. The God who made clothes for the disgraced Adam and Eve, is still making garments for flawed human beings. Because God insists on life for God’s creatures.

Now to the Ruler of all worlds,
undying, invisible, the only God,
be honor and glory, forever and ever!
Amen.

By TIUCHE (wrote 2744 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/17/2011 14:41 pm

Charles: You posted: TIUCHE, the God we know today is accessible only through prayer, and even that seems highly dubious. He doesn’t clothe or feed the people who are made homeless and hungry by earthquakes and tsunamis and wars through no fault of their own. But the God of Adam and Abraham walked and talked with them and clothed them and saved them from calamity even when they sinned. How can such disparate gods be one and the same?

Perhaps he wasn’t less of a god then, as I stated in Post 9. Perhaps he was more of a god. But he can’t be the same god we know today.

My Answer: To the majority GOD IS NOWHERE, but to those who believe and had been called and chosen GOD IS NOW HERE! HE IS IMMANUEL-meaning God with us! Blessed is the man who have not seen yet believe!

By TIUCHE (wrote 2744 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/17/2011 02:33 am

TIUCHE, the God we know today is accessible only through prayer, and even that seems highly dubious. He doesn’t clothe or feed the people who are made homeless and hungry by earthquakes and tsunamis and wars through no fault of their own. But the God of Adam and Abraham walked and talked with them and clothed them and saved them from calamity even when they sinned. How can such disparate gods be one and the same?

Perhaps he wasn’t less of a god then, as I stated in Post 9. Perhaps he was more of a god. But he can’t be the same god we know today.

By Charles (wrote 1421 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/16/2011 19:44 pm

Charles:You said: if God killed animals to make clothes for the people he created does not make him bad. It just makes him less of a god. What else did he do for them? Did he give them a rub and a massage? Lol!

Why would it make Him less of a God? Would pitying and clothing two creatures who have gone astray make one less than a God? The greatest character of God is LOVE-Loving them by clothing them indeed makes God far greater than any other so called self righteous gods.

These little gods like you and me deludes ourselves by behaving as judge of this GREAT GOD! But we small gods may pretend we are gods, able to know and decide what is good or evil in our own assessments, but we got no power…we the little gods will die; in God’s on words:

And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:22

I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High.
7 But you shall die like men,Psalm 82:6-7

I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.John 8:24.

God is still attempting to clothe us little gods so that we would not be found naked before the Law of the whole universe and be given the penalty of the second death! He is calling you and me…CALLING YOU AND ME!

“Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”Revelation 16:15

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.Revelation 3:18.

Believe me Charles your clothes of flesh won’t last long..so would mine too…we really need to wake up and grasp this opportunity as children of rebels being given this big chance to be cloth with a more better clothing that will last forever!

By TIUCHE (wrote 2744 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/16/2011 17:13 pm

TIUCHE, no, if God killed animals to make clothes for the people he created does not make him bad. It just makes him less of a god. What else did he do for them? Did he give them a rub and a massage? Lol!

By Charles (wrote 1421 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/16/2011 14:27 pm

IF GOD KILLS ANIMALS TO MAKE CLOTHES FOR THE FIRST MAN & WOMAN WOULD THAT MAKE GOD BAD? Think, humans slaughters billions of animals daily for foods and clothing, does it make them evil then? It is just the deceitfulness of our hearts that makes us thinks so…so we be careful if we think we are so righteous that we now become the judge of our creator! Consider:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?Jeremiah 17:9

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.Romans 1:21

man… every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood Genesis 8:21

Who is evil? Who is bad?” I have seen the enemy…it is us!” god have mercy on us!

“I saw the devil laughing with delight the day the music died…and he was singing…”Don Maclean.

You are of your father the devil, said Jesus.

Nothing hurts more than one who loves but is rejected by those whom he love…he pitied them and their children despite their rebellion…but what do their children who are still alive do ” they hrul all manners of accusation against the ONE WHO REALLY LOVES THEM! Hope the children would be able to see…………..

By TIUCHE (wrote 2744 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/16/2011 13:49 pm

Trying to read Genesis in metaphors means making stuff up. I don’t want to make stuff up, so in this verse I can only see God killing animals for their skins (it does say “skins”). I don’t think there’s any other logical or logistical explanation.

But I can’t imagine God almighty killing animals either! It’s incomprehensible how God evolved from someone who walked and talked like humans into the invisible spirit he is now! It just doesn’t make any sense.

By Charles (wrote 1421 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 9/16/2011 03:32 am

The “coats of skins” does not refer to Adam and Eve’s bodies previously created (Gen. 2:7; Gen. 2:22). “Skins” can only mean the skins of men (a silly interpretation) or the skins or hides of animals. To get the skins or hides means you have to cut and peel it off. Peeling live animals would be an unconscionable act. Thus, the more conscionable act of animals slain before getting their hides is in view here. The text does not suggest God sheared wool.

When God made the coats of skins for Adam and Eve He made them from something previously in existence. God the Son in His Deity, likely, taught Adam and Eve in their fallen condition their first experiential Gospel lesson looking forward to the cross.

By Roland G (wrote 1411 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 1/29/2011 17:05 pm

This particular verse is a perfect example in my opinion of misinterpretation. Please show me where it mentions anything
whatsoever about animal skins… It does not. Rather than reading
this verse so literally I believe it could mean something different
altogether. As this particular story is written in metaphors such as
the “forbidden fruit”, could it be possible that the meaning of “coats
of skins” be our earthly bodies? Just food for thought.

By Jeniffer (wrote 1 Bible Commentary - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 1/28/2011 19:40 pm

Well, we have to be careful in our understanding of the Bible. But here in this verse it is the Lord God who is providing coates of skins and clothed Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve had tried to cover themselves with the leaves of fig trees. But leaves get dried and cannot be used as clothes conveniently for longer. So God provided them a good quality of clothes, that may last longer.

The Lord God had already completed the work of creation, and it is unlikely that he would for this purpose create out of nothing a big sheet of skins, or even coates of skins right away out of nothing to cloth for Adam and Eve! So people have come to presume the killing of some animal. If we turn to the New Testament, we see what diifferent applications of the first man have been put forward by Paul and other NT writers. They did that to explain and elucidate the plan and principles of redemption.(What did lead Abel to kill animal? Where did he learn that from?)

Can we not see something of that sort? Man cannot cover his sin (Nakedness) by his own efforts, but that a real covering( in Hebrew the word for propitaition has the meaning of covering)is provided by sacrificial death of the lamb of God? In Old Testament, we have the types and antitypes, shadow of things to come. This is endorded in NT. From the time of fall of man, God is pointing to the sacrifial death of our Lord Jesus Christ for the propitation of the sins of the world.

By Jayant Christian (wrote 287 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 1/14/2010 11:12 am

Wow! Thanks Don. I never realized that either. I have read that verse so many times and read many commentaries on how it was the first saccrifice ever made by God Himself killing animals to clothe His beloveds. I never realized He could’ve simply skinned a sheep or a goat. You’re right nowhere does it state there was an actual killing involved. Thanks for the realization.

By Polet (wrote 2 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/28/2009 05:24 am

that’s a good point. I’ve heard one preacher goes so far as to state from the pulpit that the “two animals” that God killed, no longer exist, they are now extinct. you have to make a lot of assumptions to come to that conclusion.

By Jason (wrote 314 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/16/2009 02:56 am

I have read many commentaries re. this verse. Most state an assumption that God killed an animal (or animals) for these skins. BUT the text does not include this assumption. We are only three chapters into God’s Word. Have we forgotten the miracles of creation already? Why should otherwise reputable commentators make this assumption AND THEN ADD TO THE TEXT? From Old Testament to Revelation we are severely warned (with threats of the imposition of curses) we are warned about adding to or taking away pices of God’s Word. Incidently, in extreme contrast, the writer of Genesis was VERY explicit concerning the death of an animal in the very next chapter (4 vs.2 - 5) He must have had reason in not being so in 3v21 but we shouldnt speculate on this either!!

By Don Coppock (wrote 1 Bible Commentary - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 10/15/2009 09:50 am